British actress Sarah Lancashire is best known for playing Raquel in ITV's long-running soap opera "Coronation Street," for which her father, Geoffrey Lancashire, was a scriptwriter in the 1960s. On the BBC, she more recently starred as Miss Audrey in "The Paradise" and as an adult Laura in "Lark Rise to Candleford." Other UK television credits include "Upstairs Downstairs," "All The Small Things," "Oliver Twist," "Dr. Who,"

"Clocking Off," "Cherished," "Fiver Daughters," and "Murder Most Horrid" for the BBC; "Where the Heart Is," "Rose and Maloney," "Wurthering Heights," "The Glass," "Seeing Red" and "The Cry" for ITV; and Mary Miles in "Skins" for Channel 4.

Film credits include the role of Beaty in "When Did You Last See Your Father?"

On stage, Lancashire played Joyce Chilvers in "Betty Blue Eyes" at Novello, Miss Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls" at Piccadilly Theatre, Audrey in "Little Shop of Horrors" at Oldham Coliseum, Rita in "Educating Rita" at Queen's Theatre in Hornchurch, Linda in "Blood Brothers" at Albery, Denise in "The Beautiful Game" and "Pacific Overtures," both at Library Theatre, Manchester.

Lancashire graduated from Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1986.